Saturday, 31 July 2010

Just let me be.....Legally Blonde!!!!

Family,

And a good evening to you from across the Pond after another GREAT DAY in the Mother Country. And believe it or not, I'm actually typing this one in the evening vs. tomorrow morning! A great day and a lot to recap, so let's get right to it.

When Team Taylor left you, we were finishing our coffee and heading out for the day. The first activity was one that had been on the to-do list since we arrived (although it didn't open until September) - Legally Blonde the Musical.

Okay, so I know that it sounds WAY less than manly, but after you've spent a weekend hiking with 6 girls in the Lakes District, I pretty much have to count on the fact that I'm married to convince folks I'm straight anyway. Given that, I didn't figure going to see this one could make me appear any more gay, but oh, was I wrong.

Honestly, there were probably EIGHT DUDES in this entire theater, and I was the ONLY ONE without a pair of daughters dressed in pink, giggling with excitement at seeing Elle Woods in action. The good part? The dude's bathroom was EMPTY all afternoon. I could have peed in the sink and not offended anyone.

All the same, I will proudly proclaim it from the rooftop - THIS SHOW WAS AMAZING!!!! SO high energy, GREAT original music, a BRILLIANT cast, FABULOUS choreography - it was all just GREAT. It was the most expensive show we've seen in London (around $100 USD a seat), but we had 8th row DEAD CENTER, and it was worth every penny. How good is this show? It's in the same league as Wicked. Coming from Puffin and I, that is HIGH PRAISE.

After the show, we walked through the city, stopping by the Zimbabwe house to hear some of the Saturday vigil. Every Saturday a group of expats from Zimbabwe gather outside the house and sing African music to protest the rule of Mugabe. Honestly, I'd seen it before, but I simply couldn't walk away from it this time. I had tears in my eyes listening to the music. For some reason, African music - the harmonies, the chords, the emotion - has always haunted me, and I LOVE to hear it whenever I can. Hearing people sing about their homeland like that today whilst knowing the turmoil Zimbabwe is in was truly heartwrenching, and you could tell that I wasn't alone in thinking this. We listened for two songs, and I honestly think I could have stayed there until the vigil ended and been mesmerized the entire time.

We then walked through St. James park and over to Victoria, where we caught the Tube down to Stockwell (near Clapham) and spent the evening bonding with Yazz and Sam! It was an absolute BLAST. We polished off about 30 bottles of wine, and I took down 4 pints of Carlsberg. Best of all, Sam (Yazz's roommate is named Sam Stone - tell me that's not something out of a detective novel - I'm firmly convinced she's a spy for the Australian Government but shhhhhh - don't tell anyone...) cooked us some AMAZING chili con carne - we ate like KINGS.

Throw in some cheese (please someone act surprised), olives, some desert wine, and other nibbles, along with FINALLY hearing a Justin Bieber song (and realizing his stuff is TOTAL DONKEY TRASH), and you've got a recipe for a good night. So good in fact, that a) the girls all started doing Australian "bush" dancing (I have no comment) and b) Puffin decided to stay and hang out with the girls while I tubed it home.

Incidentally, I have become a HUGE fan of this new website that let's you figure out what songs are being used for commercials on TV. I've found two GREAT songs through it ("Illuminated" by Hurts - Cath, they're a MANCHESTER band! - and "Welcome Home, Son" by Radical Face). I am actually rocking out to Radical Face right now (they are the music on the "I AM" nikon commercial).